API Call Not Returning All Signatures

[Tyler Shimko]

I have written a python script that loops through API calls for the signatures of an input petition URL. When I tried the script on this petition, the script returned 970 pages of signatures (signature count per request is currently set to the max of 500). As of right now, there are 577,465 signatures on this petition. That means that the script should be returning 577,465/500 = 1,151 pages. I confirmed that some signatures were omitted when the output .csv file contained 484,559 rows (1 signature per row) instead of the expected 577,465 rows. Does change.org withhold some of the signatures when an API request is submitted? If so, why?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Alain Bloch]

Hi Tyler.

Only signatures that are publicly displayed can be seen through the public API. A user can elect to omit their signature from the public. Only the petition creator can view non-public signatures.

- Alain